As pre-reported in Haaretz and elsewhere, "The Coming Wars" by Seymour Hersh is now published in The New Yorker.
Hersh describes how Bush has consolidated the control over the military and intelligence services and bought off Pakistan and how he will use this to initiate air and commando attacks on Iran and for military operations in other countries.
The administration had its "moment of accountability", as Bush characterizes his reelection in a recent Washington Post interview. The voters have justified the continuation of the neocon’s plans and methods.
"This is the last hurrah – we’ve got four years, and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism.", a former high-level intelligence official tells Hersh.
Hersh continues:
The President has signed a series of findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as ten nations in the Middle East and South Asia.
…
"The civilians in the Pentagon want to go into Iran and destroy as much of the military infrastructure as possible," the government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon told me.
…
The American task force, aided by the information from Pakistan, has been penetrating eastern Iran from Afghanistan in a hunt for underground installations.
…
There has also been close, and largely unacknowledged, cooperation with Israel. The government consultant with ties to the Pentagon said that the Defense Department civilians, under the leadership of Douglas Feith, have been working with Israeli planners and consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear, chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran.
…
"We’re not dealing with a set of National Security Council option papers here," the former high-level intelligence official told me. "They’ve already passed that wicket. It’s not if we’re going to do anything against Iran. They’re doing it."Two former C.I.A. clandestine officers .. reported last month on the existence of a broad counter-terrorism Presidential finding that permitted the Pentagon "to operate unilaterally in a number of countries where there is a perception of a clear and evident terrorist threat." …
The two former officers listed some of the countries – Algeria, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, and Malaysia. (I was subsequently told by the former high-level intelligence official that Tunisia is also on the list.)
…
In some cases, according to the Pentagon advisers, local citizens could be recruited and asked to join up with guerrillas or terrorists. This could potentially involve organizing and carrying out combat operations, or even terrorist activities.
Hersh also describes how all the preparations are done outside of congressional oversight.
We know that Hersh and The New Yorker do rigid fact checking before reporting and his writing is a confirmation of other reports like on drones being seen and – in one case – shoot down over Iranian complexes.
What is missing so far is a preparation of the public mind in form of an "incident". But then – is there really a need for this?
Shortly after the Bush recoronation and the Iraqi elections ("there is no middle road"-Allawi is the allowed choice), military action against Syria is imminent. The attack on Iran will follow in March or April and further actions from either side involving Saudi oil installations in the late summer.
Sharon has already started his part of the Middle East war by ordering harsher operations against Palestine "without restrictions, I repeat, without restrictions" meaning indiscriminate artillery attacks on refugee camps in Gaza.
Many innocent people will die in this coming slaughter and oil will cost well over US$ 100 per barrel by the end of this year.